Size-selected vibrational spectra of phenol-(H2O)n (n=1–4) clusters observed by IR–UV double resonance and stimulated Raman-UV double resonance spectroscopies

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Abstract
OH and CH stretching vibrations of bare phenol, phenol‐(H2O)n clusters (n=1–4), and partially deuterated clusters in the S0 state were observed by using IR–UV double resonance and stimulated Raman‐UV double resonance spectroscopies. Characteristic spectral features of the OH stretching vibrations of the phenol as well as of the H2O sites were observed, which are directly related to their structures. The cluster structures were investigated by comparing the observed spectra with the calculated ones obtained by the ab initio molecular orbital calculation with (self‐consistent field) SCF 6‐31G and SCF 6‐31G* basis sets given by Watanabe and Iwata. It was found that for the clusters with n≥2, the isomer of ring form hydrogen‐bonded structure is most stable and the simulated IR spectra based on the calculated structure showed good agreements with the observed ones. For a particular cluster, which was assigned as an isomer of the n=4 cluster, an anomalous IR spectrum was observed. Two forms of the isomer are proposed with respect to the structure of water moiety: (1) an ‘‘ice’’ structure and (2) an ‘‘ion‐pair’’ structure. The relative IR absorption cross sections of each bands were also investigated for the clusters with n=1 to 4. It was found that the IR absorption cross section of the phenolic OH stretching vibration of the n=1 cluster increases by a factor of 6 compared to that of bare phenol and it further increases with the cluster size.